Just Wondering
by cellophane prince
Summary: Teddie means different things to Yosuke as the day goes by.


Yosuke sat cross-legged on the ground, his chemistry notes sprawled across the floor to the right of him, his Playstation 2 controller lain seductively to his left. The scent of the dust clumped in the garbs of brooms and featherdusters slowly rotated around the room. Yosuke didn't mind. As he glanced at the television stuffed in the corner in front of him with increasing interest, he stretched and fell backwards upon the soft blue bear suit propped hastily against the wall behind him.

Yosuke found himself more comfortable spending his free time in the broom closet. Their new house in Inaba was befitting to a family who managed a large department store...which meant, really, that it was much too big for him. For one thing, he hated how empty the place seemed all the time, even with the whole family there.

He moved his head rhythmically, the sound from his headphones bleeding from his ears.

_What the hell do we need so many rooms for? _he thought. _It isn't like I have any siblings or anything. And there's no point in having guest rooms if we never invite anybody over!_

He gazed at the single little yellow light that hung from the low ceiling.

_Well, it hasn't been so bad lately_, he decided with some more thought. _At least I have--_

The door cracked open slightly, giving away a single, bright blue, darting eye.

"Helloooo?" Teddie swung open the door flamboyantly. Upon seeing Yosuke sprawled across the floor, his eyes widened with surprise. "Oh, hi Yosuke! I didn't expect to see _you_ here!"

"Oh, hey Teddie," Yosuke said lazily, pulling his headphones away from his ears. His voice wouldn't reflect his gaze, though, as it curiously moved from that single lightbulb toward Teddie's soft face, flushed from his obviously frantic searchings for something, to the rose pinned to his shirt, to his hands, to his feet. "What's goin' on?"

"Well, what happened was, I found a package in the kitchen labeled 'microwave burritos'..." Teddie began distractedly, making his way around the closet, turning over boxes and swirling dust in the process. "And considering the state of my current position -- which is starving! -- I decided to try one of these microwave burritos for myself. For testing purposes."

A collection of mops and brooms toppled over. Yosuke recoiled slightly as Teddie clumsily attempted to put them back. "Hey, what the--"

"But, upon closer inspection..." Teddie went on, "I learned that each of these 'microwave burritos' was, in reality, completely **frozen**! _I_ could not eat one these things in such a state! It was only when I observed the package itself that I realized: in order to eat this 'microwave burrito', I am going to require something called a _microwave_!"

He continued to shuffle frantically through boxes.

"And so, my nose has thus far led me..."

He spotted something.

"...to..."

He dove into the cardboard.

"..._here_!"

He pulled out a box with an image of a microwave on it.

Teddie turned to Yosuke with the box in his arms, panting excitedly. Yosuke looked at him with an eyebrow raised, a familiar look of bewilderment on his face.

"Sorry for interrupting your meditation, Yosuke. But I've found what I was looking for."

Though the box was empty, Teddie was having some trouble keeping it in his arms as he pushed his way over the objects in the cramped closet. Once in the doorway he turned around to face Yosuke, grinning.

"Thank you for your cooperation. Now if you'll excuse me: lunch awaits."

The door slammed shut. Yosuke, curled up in a defensive position, finally stretched out again, smiling to himself and shaking his head.

_Cute._

He reached over to his Playstation controller and picked it up. As he reached toward the POWER button on the television set, he paused. His hand drifted toward the screen and gently broke through it, swimming beneath the surface as a water spider floats along the shallow line between the still lake and the sky. The head of Teddie's outfit balanced slightly off-tilt until it toppled over in the corner behind him.

_On the other hand, things are pretty different now._

---

"Grilled steak! Com try our newly-improvedly grilled steak! Come on, everybody! It's deeee-licious!"

Yosuke swept the tile floor on the roof of the building. The sun was sinking into the horizon. It was getting late. The final shoppers were slowly filing out of Junes, their shopping bags pregnant with product and their feet heavy with overuse. Donned in a red apron, Yosuke peeled his headphones away from his ears and turned toward Teddie, posed aside the grill stand in the food court. He observed the bear for a second. Teddie didn't seem to be talking to anyone at all. That suit was so small, how did he fit in it? How strange a creature Teddie still was.

"Ted! Will you stop bouncing around already? We're closing. The cooks are trying to get out of here; you're pissing them off."

Teddie sagged a little. He lifted his stubby arms and popped off his head, gasping for breath.

"Yosukeee," he whined. "Do ya mind? I'm working here!"

Yosuke put his hand to his forehead, mildly exasperated. "Well then, do whatever it is you need to do to finish up and then you can clock out."

"Yippeeeee!" Teddie's voice trailed off as he ran toward the staff room down the adjoining hallway.

If there was one thing that bear was good at, it was leaving everybody more curious about him after each interaction.

After sweeping up the last corner of the court, Yosuke shook the dustpan over a garbage bin. He took a moment to look around him, his headphones still dangling around his neck.

_At the same time..._

He scratched his chin thoughtfully. _I wonder if..._

He shook his head and began making his way toward the staff room. _Well, he isn't getting anywhere without me._

---

"Ouch!"

Teddie hopped on one foot as Yosuke locked his bike up in front of their house. "Ted, what--?"

"I stubbed my paw! Ngh--I stubbed it as I was getting off your bike!" He crouched down and glared at Yosuke's bicycle. "If I had known you were going to betray me like that, I would have...oh, I would have--"

"Teddie, chill out." Yosuke interjected, his arms crossed. "It isn't the bicycle's fault. You just need to be more careful next time."

Teddie's mood changed instantly. Slowly, he stood up and faced Yosuke. "Oh, Yosuke..." he said unflinchingly, his voice taking a softer tone. "I don't know what I would do if you didn't care about me as much as you do." His face was oddly close. "Thank you."

They stared at each other for a few seconds. Suddenly, Teddie turned and hurried through the front door, his blonde hair flashing in the light of the lamp above the front door. "Now, quick! My favorite program is on, and I can't miss it!"

Yosuke was left standing outside, alone. As he followed Teddie inside, he thought about how often things like this seemed to happen to him nowadays.

A moment later he found himself in the living room, Teddie perched on the ground aside the low table, eating popcorn. The television set was blaring the theme song to a cartoon program that Yosuke doubted Teddie had ever seen before. He plopped himself behind Teddie on a couch. "Hey, how'd you get that popcorn all of a sudden?"

Teddie munched away, his eyes glued on the TV screen. "I found it," he said simply, between gulps. "Say..."

He sat up, turning to his friend. "Yosuke, what if this show was kind of like the Midnight Channel, except recorded in a different place?" He suddenly got excited, as Yosuke looked at him with his head cocked slightly. "Do you think...are there _other_ worlds inside the TV, like the one I came from? Do you think..."

He gasped. "Do you think there are more Teddies out there inside the TV?!"

Yosuke gazed at Teddie. "I dunno about that, Ted..." He grabbed a handful of popcorn. "...I'd say it'll be pretty hard to find another bear like you."

---

"Goodnight everyone!"

Teddie's usual nightly salutation often fell on deaf ears, but that didn't stop him from saying it. What if he didn't say good night, and everyone else went to bed and had a bad dream? What a scary thought.

_Better safe than sorry_, he thought. His lamp was still on from the night before, because he had wondered what it would be like to sleep with it on, and then forgot about it when he awoke the next morning. He began changing into a set of nightclothes that Yosuke's parents provided him the first night he moved in. Teddie loved them; they were a Junes-brand blue, just like his eyes.

It was nearly midnight.

Teddie, having just learned how to read an analog clock, suddenly had an idea. He wondered what his own world looked like on that television screen, just like all of the others. Ignoring all reasonable possibilities, he turned off his light and sat in front of the TV, waiting.

"..."

He looked back at the clock. It was midnight and one minute. Nothing happened; he didn't get to see anything. Disappointed, Teddie made to stand up when he heard a creaking at his door.

Normally he would have been afraid, or suspicious, or he would let himself succumb to some other loud emotion, but for whatever reason this time he decided not to. He knew who it was.

The creaking stopped, followed by a reluctant knocking. "Yes?" Teddie ventured, still sitting on the floor. Yosuke quietly opened the door the rest of the way and shut it behind him. Moving carefully, he found himself sitting next to Teddie, who watched him with an innocent curiosity.

"Yosuke," he said softly. "Is something wrong?"

Yosuke scratched his head nervously. "W-well, I guess you could...um..."

He stopped. "Hey, Ted?"

"..."

"Can I...can I try something?"

Teddie nodded. His eyes closed as he felt a warm, moist sensation on his lower lip that explored to his upper, before covering both of them. After another moment their faces parted; Teddie staring back at his, Yosuke's eyes narrowing toward the floor.

"Oh, Yosuke-chan," Teddie whispered. "You don't have to be so worrisome. It's the most natural thing I can imagine."

Yosuke sat there, unsure of how to process it all. Even in the dark, Teddie could see the expression on his rose-colored face, faintly. "What...what do you mean?"

Teddie blinked, and smiled.

"You're safe, Yosuke. You're safe with me."


End file.
